Disney plans new 'Star Wars,' Marvel series for new streaming service

Disney's new streaming service will include new Marvel, Star Wars, High School Musical and Pixar Monster.

Author:
Mike Snider, USA TODAY , TEGNA

Published:
11:48 AM EST November 10, 2017

A live-action Star Wars TV series is among the projects in the works for Walt Disney's direct-to-consumer subscription streaming video service, set to launch in late 2019, according to company CEO Robert Iger.

Also planned: new Marvel, Pixar Monster and High School Musical series, he said.

"When you go in then you see Marvel and Star Wars and Pixar, for instance. So it's a collection -- it will be a collection of just those brands," he said Thursday on a conference call with investment analysts.

In August, Iger announced the 2019 Disney streaming service and that its new ESPN-branded service would arrive in early 2018. That service will be called ESPN Plus, he said Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, Disney-owned Lucasfilm announced that Rian Johnson, writer/director of the Star Wars: The Last Jedi (in theaters Dec. 15), will create a new Star Wars movie trilogy.

Disney shares (DIS) were up more than 2.5% Friday to $105.38. Shares initially dipped 3% after the company Thursday reported mixed results for the July-September quarter. But the stock price rose to nearly 1% two hours after the market's close at $103.57.

Hurricane Irma had an effect on Disney's domestic resort and cruise business, the company said. And higher costs for sports programming cut into media networks' revenue.

Net income for the quarter declined 1% to $1.75 billion, but results matched expectations of analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Revenue of $12.78 billion was down 3% and missed expectations of $13.3 billion..